~ Living the Slow life in North Carolina

Saturday morning coffee pot post

I’m so glad that it is Saturday. This work week was so busy, and the next one will be too. Lots of stress around me, and unfortunately I’m a sponge, not a duck. I dealt with it by singing Mahna Mahna all week, confusing the hell out of most people and getting responses from others. Search for it on YouTube (I like the Muppet version with the pink cows the most) if you need silly therapy.

I don’t know if the Friends of the Market meeting happened or not. I was supposed to get an email about it and I didn’t. I’m going to assume that it didn’t happen, and be happy since I didn’t need ONE MORE THING this week. Other than Spring beginning today. I need Spring like a starving person needs food.

I picked up my two framed oil paintings from 1910 Frame Factory, and they are beautiful. It has motivated me to frame some more of my art. Really the only thing that has stopped me has been the money, but that’s a matter of priority. If I thought I had the money to join this co-op, I have the money to get these framed. I’m going to try to frame or mat at least two pieces of work per paycheck for a few months.

Betsy at Artmongerz was very encouraging and gave my ego a boost when I picked up my work on Wednesday. I can still change my mind but they were willing to take me into the co-op. They are definitely more interested in my weaving and embroidery than the books, although she said that they liked the books and looked at the construction of them. I explained to her that I felt that I wouldn’t have time to do tapestry or embroidery and be able to have fresh work each month AND make my books, which is my focus right now. She said that they could be flexible about that. But the fact is that if I were to do this, I need to have a body of work ready for sale, and I don’t. I jumped the gun because I got excited about the prospect of joining a co-op, something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.

Another reason, which I mentioned and will mention here briefly because I am so sick of the subject, is that my hands are BOTH messed up now. They go numb and stiff at night. It could be because of all the data entry I’ve done at work recently and pulling weeds and vines in the Back Forty.

And another reason is that they seem to want bigger work, but I work small for both physical and financial reasons – I’m in love with silk. But she indicated that they were willing for me to display my small works. I just need to concentrate on doing what I do, and not what I think someone else wants. I mean, I have this in my head and I don’t even know if it is true.

Despite all that, I am looking forward to warping up the loom today. I’ll take lots of breaks. This experience has spurred me to finish the cardoon embroidery and begin the tapestry with the carrot design from this altered photo:

I received a book in the mail that has gotten me excited about working with pattern again: “The Handweaver’s Pattern Directory” by Anne Dixon. If you are a beginning 4-shaft weaver, you really should buy this book. I’m not a beginner, and even I am thrilled with it because of the spiral format and the color pages. I have an older book by her on color-and-weave that inspired me to make many scarves that I sold and gave for gifts in the 90s.

Somebody somehow used my credit card number to order several things on the Internet. I found out about it when Capital One called me. I don’t think that it is fraud, because the purchases are odd and two of them have come to my address this week. The first shipment of “The Louis L’Amour Collection” showed up first, then a package from Gevalia. Another website where it was used was aarpmembership.com. This makes me think that it was not fraud, but some kind of bizarre mistake. What I don’t understand is how my home address got attached to the credit card number on sites where I have never been.

Oh well, it’s time to get outside. A beautiful day here, with a high in the mid-70s, sunshine, peas sprouting, daffodils and cherry trees blooming. I can leave my studio door open because there are no mosquitoes right now. If my next-door neighbor doesn’t start stomping around yelling about hell and murderers and banging her back door, I might get a peaceful day in the Back Forty.